What is the difference between your castile soaps, bath & shower, and hand soaps? Aren’t they all oil based and foam equally?
I love this question.
Just as a baker will take different types of flours, different yeasts, waters, salts, sugars and extras to make an astonishing range of baked goods, so too our master soapmakers work with different plant oils, lyes, waters and extras to create a very wide range of foaming products.
The differences are in:
ASTRINGENC or how pore tightening or loosening a formula is. Dry skin formulations are the least astringent. One way to vary this effect is by altering the essential oil combinations. Mints are most astringent, then citrusy blends, then lavenders. Our Unscented blends are the most moisturizing and least astringent.
MOISTURE in cosmetic marketing speak usually means the amount of free oils in the formula. We can add exotic oils to bar soaps all day long. Liquid soaps not so much; most of the oils rise to the top and have to be shaken in each time. So by default, dry and sensitive skin people will enjoy our handmade organic bar soaps on their face and bodies.
FOAMABILITY refers to, well, how easily the stuff builds foam over a variety of conditions like temperature of the water, minerals in the water etc. The foamer formulas for example are designed to maximize small and medium bubbles to form a creamy smooth skin feel while being de-greasing enough to be able to quickly remove a wide range of materials without drying out your hands.
GEL SOAPS are a hybrid. We start with a special high olive oil body care liquid soap base. This is thickened using vegetable glycerin and organic guar gum, a food grade plant based thickener. VT Soap invented this process and although we never have patented it our exact methods are a trade secret and have never been successfully duplicated. Gel Soaps are milder than castile liquid soap but a little more astringent than our special bar soaps.
CASTILE LIQUID SOAP refers to the base or concentrate that is used to make all of our cleaners, foamers and gels. Vermont soap has developed 5 unique liquid soap bases formulations (to date) that we use in different types of products and for our custom contract work for other companies.
Many of our customers save money by buying a gallon of castile soap or Liquid Sunshine. Dilution instructions are printed on the bottle and on line to help you to make your foamers and spray cleaners simply by adding more or less water and changing the dispensing system. The premade stuff is perfectly adjusted already but you can still get good results by doing it yourself. When you look at the wide range of toxic cleaning products out there you quickly realize that adding a little extra soap to your spray cleaner makes a whole lot more sense than buying a new bottle for every item you own. ALL watersafe surfaces clean up well with natural soap and water.
Thanks for reading labels, asking questions and thinking about these things!
All the Best,